Poetry from Donna Vorreyer

Photo: John Silliman

Possible Exit Strategy #1

I would kiss the sun goodbye to embrace
the monster that I am —the moon
is the point, isn’t it, the baying chase
it inspires? I swallow then bite my spoon
to mute that roundness, pull my lips over
my teeth, use proper sounds, each tone bent
to human and precise. My howl deferred.
This is what the day requires. Containment.
Obedience. All paparazzi flash
and dazzle, a dim yet insistent grin.
The night desires no such devotion, ash
shadowing my free-fall. A shivered grip
of silver, stapled curtain, hand-cupped spark.
Who would find my wild in that dark?
.

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Donna Vorreyer is the author of Unrivered (forthcoming, 2025), To Everything There Is (2020), Every Love Story is an Apocalypse Story (2016) and A House of Many Windows (2013), all from Sundress Publications. Her poetry, fiction, and essay work have appeared in Ploughshares, Cherry Tree, Poet Lore, Salamander, Harpur Palate, Booth, and elsewhere. She lives and creates in the Chicago area and hosts the monthly online reading series A Hundred Pitchers of Honey.